Family of girl declared brain-dead 'afraid' of hospital action

Updated 12:49 am, Friday, December 20, 2013

Family members of 13-year-old Oakland teen Jahi McMath are holding out hope for a miracle recovery after a routine procedure has left the girl brain dead.

Family members of 13-year-old Oakland teen Jahi McMath are holding out hope for a miracle recovery after a routine procedure has left the girl brain dead.

Photo: CBS San Francisco

Family of girl declared brain-dead 'afraid' of hospital action

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The family of a 13-year-old Oakland girl who was declared brain-dead after tonsil-removal surgery said Thursday that loved ones would keep her alive despite pronouncements by a doctor that she was "dead, dead, dead, dead."

Relatives of Jahi McMath said officials at Children's Hospital Oakland had summoned them to a late-afternoon meeting, hours after the family had written them a letter asking doctors not to remove her from life support before Christmas - and to give them two days' warning if they were going to do so, which would allow them to get a court order.

They also asked that Jahi be given a feeding tube instead of a sugar drip in her IV.

But what a doctor told them was stunning, said Jahi's uncle Omari Sealey.

"He said, 'She's dead, dead, dead, dead,' " and refused to give her any nutrition, saying, "We don't support the dead," according to Sealey.

Nailah Winkfield said doctors refused to honor the family's request to keep her daughter on life support through Christmas, saying they wanted to take her off "quickly."

"How could you not let me have my kid for Christmas?" Winkfield said through tears. "And this is Children's Hospital, supposed to be so compassionate, so loving, and I asked him, can my daughter just live a few more days? Because she is living."

"They're going to have that body surrounded so that nobody can touch Jahi," Dolan said. "They're afraid. Could the hospital go in and try to do something? I think it would absolutely be foolish. But in their eyes she's no longer a person. She's dead. So they're not looking at her like it was your daughter or my daughter, they're looking at her like they've got to get her out of there quickly."

In a statement Thursday, David Durand, the hospital's chief of pediatrics, said, "Our hearts go out to family and friends of Jahi McMath. This is a tragic situation. We implore the family to allow the hospital to openly discuss what has occurred and to give us the legal permission - which it has been withholding - that would bring clarity, and we believe, some measure of closure and deeper understanding of this medical case."

Dolan stressed that the family was grateful for the nurses who were bathing Jahi and taking care of her. Their frustration and anger is directed at hospital administrators who are "trying to end her life," have declined to refer to Jahi by name, and have refused to hand over a copy of Jahi's medical records as requested by the family, he said.

Jahi's family said she had a tonsillectomy at the hospital Dec. 9 to correct sleep apnea. She appeared to be fine after emerging from the operation, relatives said, but later blood began pouring out of her nose and mouth and she went into cardiac arrest. She was declared brain-dead on Dec. 12.

Family members have been hoping for a recovery, though, and have accused doctors of pressuring them to remove Jahi from machines that are helping her breathe.